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Avon kidnap victim's family yearns for answers, justice

By Joseph Markman, The Enterprise

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Updated: 1:11 PM EST Nov 30, 2014

The Enterprise

From left, Scott Morrison, 46, of Norfolk, James Feeney, 44, of Dedham, and Albert Ricci III, 45, of Canton, are suspected in the kidnapping of James Robertson, 37, from his parent's home in Avon on Jan. 1, 2014. Robertson is presumed to be dead.

SOURCE: The Enterprise

Avon kidnap victim's family yearns for answers, justice

By Joseph Markman, The Enterprise

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Updated: 1:11 PM EST Nov 30, 2014

AVON, Mass. —

The Robertson family struggled to find joy this year on Thanksgiving.

Last year, James Robertson brought his best friend and two young children to his parents’ house in Avon for the holiday. They played board games and Robertson stole bits of cookie dough from his mother.

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On the day before Thanksgiving this year, Virginia Robertson worried that her chocolate chip cookies would be spoiled by tears, shed for her son. He was abducted 11 months ago and is presumed dead, according to The Enterprise.

“They are going to have so much salt and water on them,” she said. “My faith tells me that he’s at peace, but I think about how his kids are doing without him.”

James Robertson, 37, was kidnapped from his parents’ home on New Year’s Day. Two men with badges and guns took Robertson for a supposed probation-related urine test.

He has not been seen since and state police are investigating his abduction as a homicide.

Four men, including a Dedham police officer and a convicted felon, have been charged in Robertson’s kidnapping, described in court records as a love triangle gone horribly wrong.

All of them have pleaded not guilty during arraignments in Dedham Superior Court and each has a pretrial hearing date approaching during the first three weeks of December.

Prosecutors say James Feeney, a 44-year-old from Dedham with a lengthy criminal record, once dated a woman whom Robertson began a relationship with last year.

Feeney has been arrested for dealing drugs and having illegal guns and has spent at least 10 years in prison.

Feeney’s anger toward Robertson prompted him to mastermind the kidnapping, according to court documents describing what another suspect, Alfred Ricci, 45, of Canton, told investigators. Ricci’s lawyer has denied his client’s involvement.

The Dedham police officer – Michael Schoener, 40 – allegedly provided Feeney with his badge and Robertson’s probation record. He has been charged with accessory before the fact of kidnapping and was released after his father posted $5,000 cash bail in August.

The other men, including Scott Morrison, 46, of Norfolk, were each charged with kidnapping earlier this year and are being held on high bail amounts in three separate county jails.

Prosecutors say Feeney orchestrated the kidnapping using drug debts Ricci and Morrison owed him as leverage.

The two men arrived at Robertson’s house on New Year’s Day, placed him handcuffed in the back of a silver Toyota Camry and drove to a home in Canton that Ricci shared with his mother, according to court documents. There they allegedly handed him off to Feeney.

David and Virginia Robertson said they had never seen Morrison or Ricci before the day of their son’s abduction. David Robertson said he recognized Feeney from an encounter last year when he gave his son’s girlfriend a ride.

“They didn’t even know my son,” he said. “He didn’t do anything wrong. All he did was make a bad choice in selecting who he dated.”

Family members of the men charged in the crime did not respond to requests for comment last week. However, court and police records and interviews draw connections between at least some of the men.

Feeney is Ricci’s father’s cousin. Both men grew up in Dedham but did not start hanging out until after Feeney got out of prison in 2004. That is also around the time Ricci started getting into prescription painkillers, his twin sister Alicia Ricci said.

“I told him (Feeney) is bad news,” Alicia Ricci said in a previous interview. “He thinks he’s in the mafia. He’s in a wheelchair but he can break people’s legs.”

Morrison is a mechanic born in Salem who until recently was living in Norfolk with his wife and four kids. Alicia Ricci said she does not recall Morrison hanging out with her brother but believes they ended up knowing each other through prescription pill use.

“They’re addicts,” she said.

As Virginia and David Robertson entered their first holiday season without their son, they were still waiting for someone to provide the location of their son’s body. But they also want all four men to fully pay for what they are accused of doing.

“These people need to suffer and I want them to get the maximum penalty allowable,” Virginia Robertson said.

Her husband added, “I would hope there would be murder charges brought. I want them to go to real prison.”

They also worry about their grandchildren.

Robertson left behind a 4-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son. Both spent Thanksgiving at their grandparents’ home this year, even though David Robertson initially thought of canceling, concerned that their father’s absence would be too painful.